How Long Does It Take For A Fracture To Heal

How long does it take for a fracture to heal? This question is a popular one because there seems to be no correct answers for it. If you do a quick online search you will find a lot of mixed answers. The honest truth is nobody will ever know exactly how long it will take to heal a fractured bone. Everybody has a different opinion on it and everybody heals differently. I have personally fractured two bones in my lifetime. I can tell you from experience that the pain is excruciating. There are a lot of different factors that come into play when healing from a fractured bone. Here are a couple of things that you should take into consideration.

How Long Does It Take For A Fracture To Heal?

Age

By far the most important thing to consider when it comes to healing bones is the age. Children seem to heal much quicker than adults. Certain fractures in children can range anywhere from 3 weeks to 10 weeks. The most common time frame for a fracture to heal with a child is around 6 months. If the fracture is much more serious it will usually take around 10 to 12 months. So how long does it take for a fracture to heal on an adult? Well this question has a complex answer. The time frame for an adult fracture can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months. Usually it will be more in the 6 month range depending on the age. It could even take longer if you are in an elderly age range.

2. Severity

The severity of your fracture can tell a lot about how long it will take to heal. Since a fracture will usually heal in a normal time frame. If you had a clean fracture then it will probably be much quicker of a heal. If you fractured a bone and it looks much more serious and the doctor says its much more serious you will be looking at, at least 6 months. No fractures are the same and you will never get a specific answer when it comes to healing.

3. Type Of Bone

Certain bones take longer to heal than others. If you need to know how long does it take for a fracture to heal you must look at this important fact. Bigger bones will take a lot longer to heal than smaller bones. If you fracture your femur you will be looking a much longer time frame. Usually a femur will heal in around 5 to 6 months on a healthy adult. On a child a femur will take anywhere from 5 to 8 weeks. So if your fracture is severe and the bone is bigger the longer the wait.

Symptoms Of A Fracture

If you hurt yourself and you are not really sure if you have a fracture here are a couple of symptoms that can tell you if you have one or not.

Swelling

Bruising

Inability to rotate arm

Numbness or weakness in the fingers or wrist

Treatment

The treatment for a fractured or broken bone is pretty straight forward. You will probably not be doing anything too serious. Here is a step by step run down of treatment for a fracture.

Instant Treatment

If you make your way to the emergency room you may notice your doctor trying to realign bones on their own. This is known as an immediate treatment and will happen depending on how serious the fracture is. An instant treatment does not require surgery at all. At the end of this treatment you will be given a splint. A splint is sort of like a mini cast that can be moved around and adjusted for comfort. It can be tightened or loosened in order to leave room for swelling. Be sure to not move your broken bone as much as possible. Moving a broken bone can cause serious complications in the long run and prevent proper healing.

2. Non Surgical Treatment

This sort of treatment is for people with only one cleanly broken bone. A non surgical fracture can usually just be treated with a brace or a cast. This is the most common fracture treatment of all. You will be scheduled to make weekly visits for the doctor to monitor your healing progress.

3. Surgical Treatment

A surgical treatment is needed when more than one bone is broken. This requires a surgical professional to fix the fracture. If the bone has broken the skin a surgical treatment is required. If a fracture has punctured the skin it is at risk for infection. Because you are at risk of infection a surgical treatment is needed immediately. If the skin has not been broken by the bone but is poking out your doctor will suggest waiting for swelling to go down before performing a surgery.

So How Long Does It Take For A Fracture To Heal?

In a nutshell the answer to this question is really quite simple. To summarize everything that I have already said. It depends on your age, the severity of your fracture and the type of bone that you have broken. Depending on the type of treatment you can expect anywhere from 3 weeks to 12 months or possible even more.